A Year In Review

In brief... Life is Great. Poker is stagnant. That's the right way round.

I've just been re-reading my New Year's post from the beginning of this year.

I listed 5 cool things that were due to happen in 2005:

1. Getting Married. Check. Yes, that was pretty awesome

2. Graduating and getting the hell out of shitty-Oxford. Check. Although strickly speaking I haven't actually graduated, but that's more of a technicallity: another one of Oxford's niceities is that there isn't an anual graduation ceremony for everybody finishing. Instead you have to book a place at one of the many ceremonies they have scattered through the year. Guess what, I haven't got round to it yet! The important point is that I did finish my degree (albeit with a 2:2) and we did get the hell out of Shitty-Oxford. Hurrah.

3. Moving to London. Check. London rocks. Nuff said.

4. A whole year to improve my poker. Hmmm. My limit game has got worse; my tournament game has got worse; my NL cash game has got a bit better.

I also set myself a number of poker related targets for 2005:

1. Always play at a level that matches both my bankroll and my ability. Check. It certainly didn't happen immediately, but at some point I had an epiphany and realised that I wasn't going to be the next Doyle over-night, or ever for that matter and since then I've pretty much been content to play within my means. To an extent this realisation may have limited by ability to improve, but I'm now much better disciplined in my choice of stakes.

2. Better record keeping and self analysis. Failed. I've got worse, and this is certainly the biggest reason that I've failed to improve this year. I've been without Poker Tracker for half the year for one reason or another and I've stopped spending several hours a week on forums and such. This has to change.

3. Biuld my bankroll and ability so that I'd be comfortable playing at Party $15/30. Failed. I've probably played only 5,000 hands at $15/30 (at the end of 2004), but I'm a looser over those hands. My limit game was never really good enough to play $15/30 and I've not had the bankroll to even contemplate it this year. Even though I haven't been keeping records this year, I know I've been making money, but I've been uable to build the bankroll due to the necessity for frequent cashouts. Hopefully a better paid job is on the horizon so I can concentrate on swelling the coffers.

4. Qualify for a big tournament. Yeah, right.

So, 3 out of 4 life goals have been achieved (Marriage, Graduation, and Moving to London, versus Improving at Poker), which explains why life is so good, especailly since the three that were achieve have a far higher weighting in the happiness equation.

Only 1 out of 4 poker goals have been achieved. Ah, that would explain why I still suck!

Overall, a damn fine year. Bring on 2006.

Gazing into the Middle-distance

Hang over post. Beware. I may ramble. Or. I may be too lazy to write anything and just post some links.

Hmmm. The Latter.

Check this out: The Manchester Buccaneers. Hilarious.

For the benefit of non-UK readers and those with their head in the sand: The JCB Song. Makes me smile. A Lot.

I doubt that I'll be playing any online poker for the next few days. We're heading to my parents Friday to Monday, and I am considering taking my chips. The parents need educating... well, we'll see. Maybe I'll just fleece my cousins for sweets, instead!

Right, time to go and fall asleep in the toilet (no, not actually in it, stupid).

Have a great Chirstmas y'all.

Snail's Pace

Appologies for the infrequency of posts here. I dont really feel that I have much of interest to say.

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The weeks are dragging somewhat. Weekends are great, but work sucks!

I'm still waiting on final news of the new job. It's like waiting for the phone to ring. Hang on... it is waiting for the phone to ring!

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I'm still crap at poker. I continue to hang around the $1000 bankroll mark. The need for semi-regular cashouts is a pain, although it should be less necessary if and when the new job materialises.

In addition to the cashouts, I'm calling too many big bets, which is a freaking huge leak. I failed to lay down my set of eights on a board of Kx 7s 8s As 4x. I'd called a pre flop raise in the big blind and led out into my opponent for a pot-sized bet on the flop. He flat called. I decided to check-raise the Ace of spades on the turn: I checked and he bet only $4 into a $20 pot. I went with my original plan of check-raising and made it $24. He cold-called and the alarm bells started ringing. I checked the river and he pushed for $70. At this point the only vaguely plausible hand that I'm beating is AK or possibly 77. I thought AA or KK were more likely and I was close to folding, but in the end I called. He flipped over KsQs for the nut flush and I punched myself in the face.

I also came up against a staright flush with aces full. It was PL Omaha Hi/Lo so it wasn't quite as tough a beat as it sounds but it was still expensive and I'm also wondering if I should have lost less with it since none of the money went in until the river. The final board read 7x Jc Tc Ac Jx. My opponent was a reasonably good player so I was pretty certain he didn't have quads since he wouldn't have slowplayed his set on the flop. My problem was that I failed to notice that there was a stright flush out there until after I re-raised his bet on the river. When he came over the top, I was essentially committed since I was getting about 4-1 odds and I dont know enough about him to know that he wouldn't make the same move with only jack's full. I'd be interested to know if anybody only calls his bet on the river: There were 4 or 5 people in the pot it was checked all the way to the river. He then bet the pot ($9) and I was next to act on the button. Even if I'd spotted the royal flush I'd probably stilll have raised, since a lot of people would bet the open-ended-straight-flush draw on the flop.

On a slightly more positive note, I went to The Gutshot yesterday and was pretty happy with the way I played. I busted halfway through the £20 freezout when I lost a 50-50 as a short stack. I then played in the 50p-£1 PL cash game for a few hours and made back the tourney cost plus a bit. I would have been up a lot more if J8 hadn't sucked out aginst my AJ for a split pot on a board of JJ447. All the money went in on the flop. I also failed to pull ahead when all-in on a freeroll: we both had AQ on a A67 board, but I had the nut-flush draw too.

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You'll have to make do with this drivel until I think of something worthwhile/amusing to post. If nothing comes to mind this week then let me take this opportunity to wish you a happy Chirstmas.

Vegas Envy

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Oh dear. It's only 11am and I've already cleared all of my reading on bloglines. It seems that no one it posting at the moment. It's as if all the bloggers have taken a holiday at the same time or something crazy like that.

Bastards.

How am I going to get through the rest of the day now?

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I finally got round to digging out my Kenya journals the other day. I haven't had much of a chance to read them yet, but skimming through really brings the memories back.

I'm in a dilemma whether to serialise them on a seperate blog or just write a handful of articles here. The writing in the journal is quite immature and there are a whole heap of references that make no sense to an outside reader, which are arguments against serialising it, but, on the other hand, it might be the best way of bringing it to life (and a way of saving it electronically in case I ever loose the journals).

Maybe I'll do both: start a new blog and write a few articles here too.

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No poker for me this weekend. The parents are coming to visit. I'm looking forward to seeing them; they havent' really seen our new place yet (apart from when Dad helped me move in) so it'll be nice to show them round the area.

Laters.

Congratulations!

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I had some great news over the weekend: My brother and his girlfriend have just got engaged. Congratulations guys!

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I've rediscovered Redpill's Blog. I suggest you check it out. Mighty amusing. It's difficult to tell if he's for real or not, but either way if makes for a good read. He's becoming a bit of a cult sesation, so get over there while he still allows anonymous commenting!

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I had a good turn out for the home game on friday night. In fact there were almost more than could be accomodated at one point. We only play 10p/20p NL, but theres no cap on the buy-in so it can get quite deep stacked later in the night, which makes for some interesting poker.

There were some big hands matching up against each other preflop. We had AA against QQ. KK against QQ twice. I was happy to be able to escape from QQ preflop when I was up against AA and AK: there was a small raise to 60p and a reraise to £2 before it got to me, which didn't necessarily mean all that much. I was in the small blind and contemplated just cold-calling. In the end I felt I needed to define my hand and re-reraised to £5. The original raiser just called the £5 (alarm bells!) and the reraiser pushed. Fairly easy fold for me. The original raiser had the AA and the push came from AK. I was surprised about the push from AK since it came from a reasonably solid player.

I wasn't involved in too many monster pots. I ended up all-in on a King high flop with AK. My opponent in that hand reluctantly called with AK - he said he put me on Aces. I had another big split pot: I floped a broadway straight with AK. KT came along for the ride and the river was an Ace. Figures!

I made a monster lay down at one point early on against I guy I'd never played against before. Previously he'd massively overbet the pot (about £20 into a £3 pot) and showed a complete bluff. In the hand in question he limped along with a couple of others and I checked in the big bling with 86o. The flop came 966 and I bet just under the pot. He riased to £6 (the pot was less than £2 at that point), which was about half of his stack. Everyone folded to me and I eventually folded showing my hand. My line of thought was that he wouldn't overbet the pot again without a real hand. It turned out he did have a real hand; it just wasn't as real as mine - he tabled KK and scooped his £1.60 pot! Given the way he played during the rest of the evening (terribly!) there's no way I'd ever make that lay down against him again, but given the information I had at the time, I dont think it was a terrible fold. I was essentially only getting even money if I'd have decided to put him all-in, since the initial pot was so small.

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On the job front I jumped through a few more hoops (sucessfully) at the final assement day on Monday. They've now got to take references etc, but I'm not expecting to hear anything for a couple of months so I'll have to slog it out with the data entry for a while yet. Mmmphfhp.

Warm and Fuzzy

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Life's good.

It just is.

It's not often that I sit at my desk and feel content, but this morning has seen me doing just that. I have a lot to be thankful for.

I have the most amazing wife, I have a wonderful family and I have the whole of the rest of my life to enjoy. Bring it on.

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We went up to Nottingham this past weekend to see my brother and to redeem my Birrthday present, which was tickets to see Faithless.



They fookin rock.

It was also great to see the bro and his girl. We hung out, ate, drank, and even played a spot of cards. Twas a good weekend.

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Poker continues to take much of a back seat - at least compared to the ammount I played before I joined the working world. I still haven't got Poker Tracker or any other stat/record keeping parafanaliar (spelling?) set up on the new computer, so that's certainly contributing to my treading water (read: steadily loosing) over the last week. I'm not too worried yet.

It's looking as thought I may be hosting a game at mine on Friday night. I've been trying to set up a regular game for a while with little sucess, but there seems to be enough people interested this week. With any luck there should be some low stakes shinanigans.

My long term poker goals need re-evaluating. I really want to become an excellent player, but I doubt that I'm going to be able to give it the required attention to achieve that. I haven't properly studied the game or analysed my own play for a long time, which is seriously holding me back.

I'm more certain that no-limit cash games are what I want to persue the most. Although, I started with limit, I enjoy NL much more now. I still like to return to 6-max limit holdem from time to time, but I'm seriously rusty and it's almost certainly -EV for me at the moment.

My tournament game is seriously needing work too. It's been a fair while since I played many tournaments, but this week I've played a few and boy have I sucked. I busted early in most of them playing far too loosly and aggressively. I had one sucess in a 1,000 FPP qualifier for the WPT-CPA. I've now got a butt load of FPPs, so I'll either buy a load of Poker Stars T-shirts or take a 1 in several hunderd shot at qualifying for the trip. I also bubbled in a $20, 180 player tournament on Stars. I felt I played better, but I still made life difficult for myself by bluffing off a large chunk of my stack on a couple of occasions.

Enough about poker

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I haven't forgotton about my promise to write about Kenya. I'm working on an introductory post about the work I did out there and in the mean time I'll have to dig out my journals from the bottom of a box under a mountain of other boxes somewhere in the depths of our rather jam-packed storeage cuboard.

As home-work, go and see The Constant Gardner.
Bloody. Amazing. Film.